Inky Shines; Youngsters Take Over on Day Two of Dutch Nationals

By Oene Rusticus

EINDHOVEN, The Netherlands, June 3. WORLD record-holder Inge De Bruijn remained unbeatable, but Holland's younger generation also flexed its muscles on the second day of the Dutch Nationals. Georgios Dimitras and Nick Van der Zandt swam very impressive times at the 400 IM, and Hinkelien Schreuder and Sander Ganzevles missed the Dutch record in the 50 backstroke by only a few hundredth of a second. Inge de Bruijn swam an awesome butterfly, as did Pieter van den Hoogenband.

The first final, the women's 800m freestyle, was not at a very high level without Olympians Kirsten Vlieghuis and Carla Geurts. The new generation took over, led by youngster Renee Dimitra who swam a personal best time but couldn't make it under 9 minutes, (9.03.15) Long distance swimmer Etta van der Weijden (9.08.96) who swam at the World Championships at Hawaii last year, helped Celine Lemmen to an European Youth Championships time cut (9.09.87).

The 400 IM was a battle between Nick van der Zandt and Georgios Dimitras again, the same competitors as in the 200 IM. Dimitras, winner of the silver medal last year at the EYC at Dunkerque, showed he had more endurance at this event, the hardest of all. For the first 200 meters, they swam stroke for stroke, but in the breaststroke Dimitras showed his talent and swam away, finishing with a very strong free in 4.26.99. Van der Zandt ended up in 4.33.12, which was an EYC time cut.

Inge de Bruijn was Inky again, the star from Sydney. The new 'Madam Butterfly,' who has trained more on the freestyle lately to improve her endurance. Yesterday she said she wasn't satisfied with her butterfly performances yet, now swam a glorious race. With 27.26 and 31.12 as splits she swam to 58.38 for 100 meters, to rank #2 on the world list for 2001.

The other short butterfly final promised to be an exiting one. Joris Keizer who defended his Dutch title, had to compete with his Phillips teammate, Pieter van den Hoogenband, who preferred this event above the 200 freestyle in which he already swam a time cut for Fukuoka, and other butterfly specialist and Olympian Stefan Aartsen. Van den Hoogenband won in a personal best 54.16, just before the fly swimmer from his commercial team, Keizer (54.45), closely followed by Aartsen (54.47). Van den Hoogenband said he wanted to swim something else this time: "The 400 freestyle (from yesterday) and the 100 butterfly matched better with my schedule." If he can make a personal best time at this event, still making heavy workouts every day, what will he swim in his favorite event, the 200 freestyle, at Fukuoka? We'll see!

Madelon Baans swam a disappointing 200 breaststroke for women (2:35.63). It was her last 200. After the race she said "I won't swim this event again." Her time was for away from the time cut for Fukuoka.

The men were more successful at this distance, EYC star from last year at this event Thijs van Valkengoed, swam the time cut for this year in a promising 2.20.31. He was leading the first half using his special 'dive' technique, but at the end he had to let Benno Kuipers win this Championship (2.19.12).

Question of the 200 freestyle was if there could be a relay formed for Fukuoka, both for men and women. The women tried first. The first 100 was almost equal for all; in the second half, Carla Geurts took command and ended up in 2.02.20. She was the only who could make the individual time cut. Based upon the individual times, there won't be a relay, Kirsten Vlieghuis finished in 2.02.35; Manon van Rooijen in 2.03.95.

The men won a bronze medal at Sydney and silver one at Perth (1998). Based on the times swum today, those glorious days are over. Martijn Zuijdweg won in a disappointing 1.52.47, not enough for an individual start, followed by Arnold van Bavel with 1.54.40.
Three men on the Sydney team weren't competing here: Pieter van den Hoogenband (he has this time cut already, but he doesn't want to swim the relay if there are no possibilities for good results), Marcel Wouda (who retired last December), and finally Mark van Zijden, who is still swimming but was injured.

After these tragedies there was light again at the end of the tunnel. In the 50 meter backstroke there were some rather good times in the prelims; perhaps the Dutch records could be improved in the finals.

Hinkelien Schreuder ranked first after those prelims, with a 29.93. In the finals she had a good start, stayed quite long under water and swam to 29.58, only 0.01 above the Dutch record. Unhappily for her, it was 0.08 above the Fukuoka time cut. Suze Valen, who is now still the record holder, swam to a second place in 29.97.

In the men's final Sander Ganzevles and Klaas Erik Zwering were very good competitors, leading each other to personal best times. Ganzevles finished first in 26.74, only 0.02 seconds above the Dutch record and 0.01 faster than his prelim time. Zwering, swimming for the commercial team, ended up in 27.04. This happy ending showed the young talents are taking over from the old generation. The future looks bright.